Riot Platforms has signed AI data center leases covering 241MW of critical IT capacity with two major technology customers, representing approximately $9.8 billion of long-term contracted revenue, accelerating the company’s transition from a predominantly Bitcoin-mining business into a large-scale data center developer.
The larger of the two agreements is a newly signed 191MW build-to-suit lease at Riot’s Rockdale campus with a leading frontier AI lab. The initial 20-year term runs through June 2048 and is expected to generate approximately $9.1 billion of contract revenue.
The economics could become considerably larger if the customer remains beyond the base term. The agreement includes two five-year extension options, which would increase the total potential contract value to approximately $16.1 billion if both are fully exercised.
Riot estimates that the initial term alone could generate $7.3 billion to $8.2 billion of cumulative net operating income, equivalent to an average annual NOI contribution of approximately $365 million to $411 million. Initial 96MW delivery is targeted for December 2027, with the full 191MW scheduled to be deployed by June 2028.
Morgan Stanley is providing a $573 million interim financing facility to fund initial development costs while an investment-grade credit backstop is finalized. The financing structure is intended to support construction of the large Rockdale project without requiring Riot to fund the entire build from existing liquidity.
The 191MW agreement follows Riot’s earlier lease with AMD. Riot completed the initial 25MW AMD deployment on time and on budget during Q2, converting the facility to recurring lease revenue at full initial scale. Another 25MW is under construction, including a 10MW phase targeted for November 2026 and a 15MW phase scheduled for May 2027.
The data center business is already beginning to appear in reported results. Riot generated $23.2 million of Q2 Data Center revenue, consisting of $4.9 million of operating-lease revenue and $18.3 million of tenant fit-out services associated with the initial AMD deployment.
That new business is emerging as Bitcoin mining revenue declines. Bitcoin Mining revenue fell to $113.7 million from $140.9 million, while Engineering revenue increased to $37.3 million from $10.6 million. Overall quarterly revenue increased 14% to $174.2 million from $153 million.
Riot ended Q2 with more than $1.2 billion of liquid assets, including 11,380 bitcoin valued at approximately $666 million at quarter-end and $548.9 million of cash, of which $77.5 million was restricted. The balance sheet provides additional resources as the company starts funding its AI infrastructure pipeline.
The contrast between Riot’s current data center revenue and its signed contractual pipeline is substantial. Only $23.2 million of quarterly Data Center revenue has begun flowing through the income statement, while the two signed AI tenants now represent approximately $9.8 billion of contracted revenue and 241MW of capacity that is still being deployed.
KEY QUOTES:
“Today’s announcement of a landmark 20-year, 191-megawatt data center lease with a leading frontier AI lab marks a defining moment in our evolution into a leading developer of large-scale data centers. It builds directly on a strong second quarter, in which we completed delivery of the initial 25 megawatts to AMD on time and on budget. In just over six months, Riot has now executed leases totaling 241 megawatts of capacity, representing approximately $9.8 billion of long-term, contracted revenue with two of the most important companies in the AI ecosystem.”
“Our platform stands apart through three elements working together: multi-gigawatt-scale power capacity that is already fully approved and energized, in-house data center development expertise, and the ability to engineer custom infrastructure for computing’s most demanding workloads. With all three, and the financial resources to deploy them already secured, we are positioned to convert strong market demand from high-quality tenants into compounding shareholder value.”
Jason Les, Chief Executive Officer of Riot Platforms
